Leed fulfills jazz dreams with new album, concert

WHEN Melveen Leed was 19, she started drawing crowds to the Hilton Hawaiian Village Garden Bar singing with a combo. That gig ran 10 years. In those days she was heavy on jazz, knocking out songs in a clear, clean, powerful voice and never missing a beat. I became a fan and a friend of the young woman, the 1962 Miss Molokai, and always thought she could make it big singing jazz on the mainland. And she did get an offer to sing in Vegas but did not accept because she didn’t want to leave Hawaii. So Mel continued on her merry musical path in Honolulu and showed she also had a great knack for comedy and even acting. Besides jazz and pops, she focused on Hawaiian and country music. She sang at the Grand Ole Opry in 1977 in Nashville. She also did two shows on Jack Lord‘s "Hawaii Five-0," appearing as Sally, a hands-on bar owner. But her love for jazz was never lost. Now, on her 69th birthday, July 18, Melveen will release her first jazz album, "I Wish You Love," at a dinner concert in the Ala Moana Hotel’s Hibiscus Ballroom, 6 to 10 p.m. She will be backed by Jim Howard on piano, drummer Noel Okimoto and bassist Dean Taba. Melveen will introduce the male singing group Reminiscing to open the show. A seven-course Chinese dinner will be served before showtime. The cost for dinner and the show is $65; call 542-7299. …

MELVEEN, also known as "Da Tita," sang at my wedding at Kawaiaha‘o Church in 1974. It was memorable. Shortly before the Rev. Abraham Akaka was to conduct the ceremony, my best man and Roosevelt class of ’49 pal Frank Steinmiller, a star athlete and joker, said his pants split down the rear. He was not joking. A quick fix with a needle and thread ensued. Then Melveen entered a room where my wife-to-be, Brita, and her attendants were waiting and said, "Ben requested three songs: ‘Leialoha Makamae,’ ‘E Maliu Mai’ and ‘Please Release Me, Let Me Go.’" The women were shocked until they realized she was joking about "Release Me." …

ONWARD: Roosevelt’s class of ’42 has the distinction of being the last class to graduate from the high school when it was also an intermediate school. In those days students went straight from an elementary school’s sixth grade into Roosevelt’s seventh grade. The following year, elementary-school graduates went to Stevenson Intermediate, which started with a seventh-grade class and added eighth- and ninth-grade classes in subsequent years. The 70th reunion of Roosevelt’s class of ’42 will be held July 13-15. Contact Kitty Hole Schauer at 732-3644 or Paul Fernandez at 833-3394 for more info. …

CASTLE HIGH 1997 grad Kimee Balmilero, formerly of Kaneohe, who was in the original Broadway cast of "Mamma Mia" and the second national touring company of "Miss Saigon," is teaching theater to elementary- and middle-school kids during Mid-Pacific’s summer school. …

PALAMA Settlement is holding a golf tournament Aug. 31 at the Kapolei course to raise funds for its many programs, including those for youngsters who come from low-income families and housing projects. Entry cost is $200 per player or $600 for a team of three and covers greens fees, cart, golf shirt, goodie bags, light lunch, refreshments, buffet dinner and awards banquet. For more information, call Sylvia Flores at 848-2502 or email info@palamasettlement.org. …

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Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.